Confession Isn't Always Good For the Soul
by Genevieve Kelly
Summary: No one remembered what happened within the six weeks they were in Camelot for to try to save Emma from the darkness, except for Emma. She led them to believe they failed her so she could be left alone to fix all she's done, but that night she needed to confront Killian so she could make sure her efforts to keep him in the dark about the awful truth of what she did to him worked.
1. Chapter 1

Confession Isn't Always Good For the Soul

One-Shot

Upon their sudden return to Storybrooke…

_Once the purple smoke of the newest dark curse cleared after Granny's was ripped from the land of Camelot and brought back home to the foundation where the diner belonged, blinding magic suddenly emanated around all those who remained unconscious on the floor within to restore it as though the diner never vanished from Storybrooke within the twister that had brought the heroes all to Camelot six weeks earlier to begin with. However, as soon as the light faded, everyone weakly awoke in confusion and worry, while Sleepy and Sneezy swiftly ran in from outside to find out what happened._

_ The dwarf who sneezed so much that he was given his name for doing so, looked around at their friends who struggled to rise back to their feet, then turned to Mary Margaret and David as he asked with concern, "__What are you guys doing here?"_

_ Everyone within the diner continued to look all around them, while the Princess questioned, "What happened?"_

_ "We're back," her husband worryingly stated in reply._

_ "Bloody hell," Hook grumbled, feeling just as disoriented as everyone else._

_ Regina spoke up with concern in her voice saying, "This doesn't make any sense. We were just walking into Camelot."_

_ Grumpy then began to study the clothes he saw weren't his own as he questioned brusquely, "What the hell are we wearing?"_

_ "Sneezy, what happened?" he asked again when he and Doc looked towards him. "How long were we gone?"_

_ "Six weeks," their brother nervously responded._

_ Regina immediately stared at him in shock while she uttered, "What?"_

_ As he struggled to put the pieces together that he found he couldn't remember, David apprehensively continued, "Our memories… they're gone."_

_ "Again?" his wife whispered fearfully._

_ "Where's Emma?" Killian at last asked aloud, while he looked again around the room in search for the woman he loved and suddenly feared she might not have made it back with them._

_ All of a sudden, a whoosh sounded as the woman who was once the Savior poofed herself before them within the doorway, and when her silvery black smoke cleared away, everyone stared upon her new dark appearance in shock and with fear while Emma answered his question darkly, "Relax. I'm right here."_

_ Electricity sparked behind her while she remained standing before them and Henry looked at her worryingly as he questioned, "Mom? What happened to you?"_

_ "Isn't it obvious?" Emma coldly replied and then slowly started to make her way through everyone around her towards Killian, who remained standing within the back of the diner. "You went to Camelot to get the darkness out of me."_

_ "And you failed," she then said again once she paused a moment in front of her mother and reached out to stroke her cheek, causing Mary Margaret to gasp at the coldness of her daughter's touch._

_ Sneezy suddenly sneezed beside her and Emma looked at him strangely, then questioned him curtly, "What the hell are you supposed to be?"_

_ The dwarf was about to sneeze again, until the former Savior swiftly moved towards him and raised her hand to turn Sneezy into a stone statue before their very eyes to stop him from doing so, then Emma spoke again sinisterly saying, "There's no Savior in this town anymore."_

_ "Emma, stop…" Regina at last pleaded with her sternly when she moved forward to stand up to her, while everyone else continued to look on the Dark One not just with fear, but also with sadness and regret. "That's enough."_

_ "Or what?" Emma cruelly retorted._

_ The former Evil Queen kept her eyes on her friend as she responded firmly, "Or I'll do exactly what you asked me to."_

_ Regina reached down for the Dark One dagger she expected to still be at her side until she found that it was missing, then Emma suddenly raised up in front of their eyes as she gripped the dagger's hilt tightly within her grasp and asked darkly, "Looking for this? Nobody's gonna touch this dagger but me."_

_ "Now… for what you all did to me…" she went on until she paused again while thunder rumbled from the storm outside and lightning flashed, then she walked past Regina and at last reached Killian, but instead of keeping her focus on him, Emma swiftly turned around again to face everyone else still surrounding her. "You're about to be punished."_

_ "Emma," the man who loved her at last voiced in worry, and Emma immediately turned her head back around to look into his darkened eyes. "Why are you doing this?"_

_ She kept her eyes on him while she answered without emotion, "Because… I am the Dark One."_

Before anyone could question her further or do anything to try to stop her, the Savior turned Dark One suddenly vanished again from before them within another cloud of smoke and everyone could only stare where she stood moments ago. For nearly a minute, no one said another word. David just lowered his head and turned to look at his wife and son being cradled within her arms, as Mary Margaret looked up at him with tears in her eyes.

Regina walked over to Henry and pulled him into a hug to comfort him knowing that a part of him was blaming himself, while Robin followed after her and reached out to lay his hand gently on her shoulder to offer her comfort as well. As for the dwarfs… those lucky enough not to have incurred the Dark One's wrath moved in to stand around their brother who had been turned to stone, while they looked upon Sneezy with anger.

Grumpy finally broke the silence that had fallen over the room as he turned his head towards their leaders and grumbled angrily, "How did we let this happen?! What exactly did happen to us in Camelot that brought us back here? What are we supposed to do now? We can't possibly win a fight against Emma now that she's the Dark One. Her magic has got to be far more powerful than it was even when she was the Savior. And now Sneezy's been turned to stone. How do we help him?"

"Try not to worry," Regina replied when she finally released her hold on her son so she could turn around to face the dwarfs and the rest of her friends now looking to her for any ideas on what to do next. "We can bring him to my vault where I'll see if there's anything I can do to hopefully reverse Ms. Swan's dark magic. As for what's happened to Emma… well, I suppose we're just going to have to work on trying to find out. She obviously included another forgetting potion in her curse she made to bring us back here so that we wouldn't remember just what the hell happened to her in Camelot. To all of us."

"But why?" Belle questioned while she continued to keep her arms crossed as she looked between Regina, David, and Mary Margaret. "I mean… if it was Rumple, then I might understand why he wouldn't want our help to try to save him. He liked the power that the darkness gave him most of the time. And he was always very secretive. But Emma… surely she would want our help. Even if we did fail to keep her from giving into the darkness. She is after all the Savior too. Or… she was."

At last, Killian spoke again strongly saying, "She still is. Even if she has given into the darkness for whatever her reasons for doing so are. The part of her that makes her the Savior has to still be in her. It's like Henry said, you can't un-Savior the Savior. I refuse to believe the woman I love is just gone."

Before anyone could say more, the pirate Captain swiftly walked towards the door to leave until David reached out to grab his arm to try to keep him from running after his daughter in a desperate attempt to confront her once more. However, Killian immediately yanked his arm free as he turned his head to glance over at his friend, then turned away again and continued to leave without another word. The Prince let out a sigh of frustration and then he looked around at the others around him before they all finally began to leave the diner themselves except for Granny, who remained behind to check on what might be broken, as everyone went their separate ways.

Regina offered the dwarfs to use her magic to poof Sneezy to her vault for them, but they refused and said they would carry their brother to her vault themselves. After Regina finally left with Henry and Robin just behind David and Mary Margaret, the dwarfs were the last to leave with their brother made of stone.

A few minutes later…

Upon leaving Granny's, Killian walked hurriedly down the streets as he searched for signs of Emma's car in the hope that he would find her somewhere nearby it. Aside from her parents' loft, Granny's, or Granny's Bed and Breakfast, where he knew she wouldn't go now that she was seen as a villain in most everyone's eyes, her yellow bug was the only haven he knew of that might offer her any kind of shelter. Unfortunately, she wasn't anywhere around when he finally found it parked not too far down the street from the harbor. At least not anywhere he could see her from, as she stood off in the distance where she was able to keep watch while she followed him.

After the woman he loved suddenly appeared before him and her loved ones dressed in all black leather with her pure white hair pulled back into a braided bun behind her head and pale white skin upon her having clearly lost her battle against the darkness, not only was he afraid for her, but he was also angry. However, not with Emma, but at himself for having failed her.

Killian waited beside her car for several minutes with hope that she might appear before him. However, once he finally gave up hope that she might want to talk with him, the Captain at last made his way into the harbor and boarded his ship where he expected to remain alone for the rest of the night, not knowing what time it actually was since their abrupt return home.

When he finally finished checking the riggings and the sails for the night like he always did, then made sure that the ropes and the anchor which kept the Jolly Roger bound within the harbor at the docks, Killian walked down below deck and into his quarters to retire for what he knew would be a restless evening. However, he was suddenly startled upon walking in, when he found Emma lying out on top of his bed as she turned her head to look at him with a cold, yet seductive smile on her face.

The moment their eyes met, Killian could only utter, "Emma…"

"I figured you would return here aboard your ship alone so you could brood," she softly responded to him without making a move to sit up, while Killian remained standing in the doorway as he could only continue staring at her. "Everyone closest to me has someone to comfort them. Henry has Regina and Robin, and my parents have each other. But who do you have? It would seem just me."

"I don't think there's anything you could say to me right now that could comfort me," he despondently answered her, then warily stepped further into his quarters and moved around in front of his bed once she finally sat up so she could look upon him head on. "Unless of course you can tell me that you're still the woman I love and not the bloody Dark One speaking any longer. In fact… I doubt you even want to talk to me. I thought you were angry with me? That you wished to punish me and everyone else for failing to save you from the darkness? Is that not why you're truly here? Because if it is, get on with it then. But, Emma…"

Sadness then appeared in his eyes and across his face once he paused a moment to think on his words until he remorsefully continued, "However I might have failed you… whatever punishment you have in mind, it's surely the least that I deserve. I should have saved you. I'm so sorry."

Much to Killian's surprise, Emma stood up and moved towards him until she pulled him into an embrace and tenderly began to caress his left cheek, then while she continued to hold him tightly against her body, keeping her head close to his, she lovingly whispered, "I haven't lost you after all. I hoped it would work and it did. You're still you."

"Or at least… you are… again," she strangely added, causing Killian to start to pull back as he looked at her with confusion, until Emma passionately began to kiss him in order to try to keep him from doing so.

"No… Swan, this isn't you," the pirate suddenly retorted a few moments later after very nearly falling for her seduction, as he pulled back from her and looked into her eyes seeking out the woman he loved somewhere deep inside of the Dark One still standing before him with a look of hurt and confusion on her face once he took a few steps away from her. "What's going on with you? What did you mean just now? You can answer me. Whatever it is you might have done… I don't care."

Emma scoffed and turned away from him, then crossly replied, "You say that now, but you have no idea just how wrong you are. You wouldn't understand. Believe me."

However, Killian swiftly reached out to grab her arm in order to turn her around again so she would face him while he responded pleadingly, "After all of our time together, do you really not know me at all? Emma… you've done more for me than anyone's ever done and you turned me into a hero after centuries of being a villain, and two lifetimes being full of nothing but hatred and a desperate lust for revenge. Because of all that… I can forgive you for anything. No matter what you've done. Even the Dark One can be saved. You showed me that. Hell… you took on the darkness in order to save not only Regina, but Rumplestiltskin as well. If anyone can destroy the darkness inside of you, it's you. You're far stronger than they are. You might have lost your battle with the darkness in Camelot because we failed you… because I somehow failed you, but let me help you now. Please. Just begin with telling me what happened. How did everything go so wrong?"

Emma continued to look deep into Killian's eyes and behind the desperate pleas within them, she could also see the hatred towards himself that she's seen in his eyes for nearly as long as she's known him except for when the man she loved acted smug in order to mask the feelings he was hiding, and showed her just how much he loved her like he was trying so hard to do now.

"All right… I'll tell you what happened in Camelot," she answered him at last while she reached out again to take his hand and hook into her own hands, then swiftly poofed him and herself back above onto the deck of his ship and used her powers to set the Jolly Roger free, as the ship magically set sail so that he could have the peace riding the ocean's waves brought to him to try to help ease his mind while they talked.

"Don't worry… I promise you, you're perfectly safe with me," she then added upon sensing him grow uneasy once the ship pulled away from the harbor. "But please… I need you to try to be understanding. What I've done… Everything I've done has been to save you, Killian. I couldn't lose you. And I almost did."

Killian kept his eyes on her when Emma turned away from him again once she apprehensively began to share with him all that happened between them on their final day in Camelot. She was afraid to look at him, especially the further into her sad tale she got. And yet as she did, she could sense his uneasiness slowly turning into something more. Emotions she knew and feared would rise within him if she did reveal to him the awful truth as she was doing now.

Hours earlier within Camelot…

_The heroes stood together inside Granny's once they finally succeeded in taking Excalibur away from King Arthur after their battle in the forest against him and Zelena, as Emma prepared herself to use the Promethean Flame to unite the broken sword and the Dark One's dagger so that she could rid herself of the darkness at last._

_ Merlin stood before her beside Killian and a number of others, while Emma's parents and her son stood beside her, then the Sorcerer questioned the good woman he saw within the Dark One asking, "Are you ready?"_

_ Emma stared back at him as she replied simply, "Yes."_

_ "Then it's time to destroy the darkness once and for all," Merlin softly responded while he offered her a proud smile, then took a couple of steps forward and leaned down to lay the small box containing the newly ignited flame within it upon the table between them so she could begin to work._

_ Killian also took a few steps forward and offered the woman he loved a reassuring smile that she could do this and the Savior lovingly smiled back at him, then at last she used her magic to raise the flame from its box into the air in front of her and conjured its power within it, before she finally reached down to pick up Excalibur in one hand and the dark dagger in her other. She concentrated deeply as she then placed the tip end of both blades into the center of the flame so that its magic could unite them together. Unfortunately, the time given to her to destroy the darkness once and for all faded, when tragedy arose and Emma's worst fear that she would lose someone she loved to the darkness and her quest to rid herself of it came to pass._

_ "Bloody hell," Hook brusquely uttered when he strangely began to grow faint, as agonizing pain suddenly flooded through him from the wound he received in his brief fight earlier against Arthur to get the broken sword, which Emma thought she had healed._

_ Everyone except for Emma turned their heads to look over at him while her concentration remained focused on her efforts, but David asked him worryingly, "Hook, what's wrong?"_

_ In that moment, what was once only a thin cut made along his neck from being nicked by the sword's edge immediately reopened and his blood swiftly began to trickle out between his fingers after he wrapped his hand over the wound as it at last caused him to collapse to the floor at Emma's feet, and Mary Margaret fearfully cried out, "He's bleeding!"_

_ "Killian?" Emma whispered in fear once she quickly broke from trying to forge the blades upon seeing him fall beside her when he weakly groaned out in pain, then continued to breath heavily in a struggle to survive, and she immediately dropped the two blades on the floor beside her as she knelt down above him so she could do everything in her power to try to help him, while she tenderly laid her hand over his own still covering the wound. "No."_

_ "When did that happen?" Regina asked in concern when she saw the wound herself, as she too moved forward and leaned down to see what was wrong._

_ Emma kept her eyes down on Killian while she struggled to heal his wound again only to fail, then with despair she answered, "It was Excalibur. But it was just a small cut. I healed it."_

_ Merlin then spoke again to answer her with remorse, as he stepped forward saying resolutely, "I'm afraid it only seemed that way. Excalibur was forged to cut immortal ties. A wound from it cannot be healed."_

_ "What?" Emma's mother briskly questioned him once she and everyone other than Emma, David, and Henry stood straight again to confront the all-powerful Sorcerer, refusing to believe they couldn't help save her daughter's love. "There has to be something we can do. That she can do!"_

_ "Even Emma's power isn't strong enough, nor is my own," he regretfully replied again while he looked at her, until he lowered his eyes down on Emma and Killian once more when she started to plead with the man she loved._

_ In doing so, she whispered, "Killian, you have to hold on. I can't lose you."_

_ Sadly, he struggled to keep his eyes open and on her face as he responded weakly, "It's all right. Emma… it's all right."_

_ "No," she desperately cried out to him while tenderly caressing his right cheek until she began to shake him gently in effort to keep him with her as long as she could. "Please, no. Don't leave me. You have to stay. You have to stay. Come on, Killian. What about our future together?"_

_ Hook continued to look deeply into her eyes while he answered his love pleadingly, "Our future is now. Reunite the blades so I can see them before I go."_

_ At last, he started to lose his struggle with consciousness while his anguish only worsened, causing him to gasp again in pain, so with sheer determination once she made up her mind about what she was about to do, the Savior, or possibly the Dark One within her then stated brusquely, "No!"_

_ "No?" Regina questioned her in confusion by what she meant._

_ "I'm not gonna let him die when I know there's a way to save him," Emma firmly replied again, ignoring Regina when the former Evil Queen leaned over her once more in plea to snap her friend out of thinking whatever it was she might be thinking._

_ She said gently, "Emma… Merlin said it. There's nothing you can do."_

_ However, Emma quickly turned her head to look back at the Sorcerer as she retorted gruffly, "That's what he said, but it's not true, is it? You told me how powerful I am. Let's use that power. I… I can use the Promethean Flame to release you from Excalibur, and then I can use it to tether Hook's life to it instead. It could save him."_

_ "Emma, you know what that could do," Merlin sternly responded to the Dark One once more._

_ "Create another Dark One," Regina answered for her in fear, as the same fear entered everyone's thoughts throughout the room._

_ While Emma lowered her head to look down on Killian again as tears began to fall from her eyes, Merlin continued even more resolutely, "It will multiply the darkness so that it cannot be destroyed. Not without you paying the steepest of prices. It will be your final step into the dark."_

_ The woman who loved the pirate Captain lying beneath her had heard the Sorcerer's words, but she could only see the immeasurable amount of pain he was suffering, and so despite Merlin's warning, and the warnings of everyone else around her, Emma spoke again in defiance saying, "I don't care what happens to me."_

_ "Emma, wait," her father pleaded, as Mary Margaret immediately knelt beside him to continue to plead with her as well._

_ "Please," she whispered. "Listen, you can't."_

_ Regina then added out of regret because of what Emma was about to lose, "Emma, your parents are right."_

_ However, the Dark One within her suddenly snapped at the former Evil Queen in anger as she raised her head again to glare at her while she brusquely retorted, "If you could've saved Daniel, or Robin… Look how far you were willing to go. How far you pushed me to save him!"_

_ "I'm not gonna lose Killian," Emma sobbed in despair as her voice broke once she lowered her eyes again upon him, then she tightened her grasp on the lapels of his long coat while she prepared to vanish with him in silvery black smoke so that she could be alone with him for what she was about to do at last. "I won't let anyone stop me."_

Moments later, somewhere within the field of middlemist flowers…

_Emma sat on the grassy earth beside the man she loved so deeply in the middle of the flowers that now surrounded them, while she continued to look down upon him and kept hold of his only hand firmly within her own. Killian was still conscious, but only just. Seeing him so frail and in so much pain as she felt his life slipping away from her, broke Emma's heart._

_ "Emma…" he weakly uttered once more when he was able to open his eyes again ever so slightly so he could see into her own._

_ She tightened her grip around his hand when he continued to writhe and tremble within her grasp, then groaned again in pain as he was unable to suppress his agony for her sake any longer, and once it momentarily passed, Emma whispered to him lovingly, "Killian. You're going to be okay."_

_ However, he struggled to plead with her, having heard what Merlin and Regina told her about what the darkness would do to him, as well as the others' pleas for her not to give into the darkness, as he frailly replied, "No, please… You have to let me go. I don't want to pay this price. I don't… I don't want to become that."_

_ "You won't," she responded despite her fear for him in order to try to reassure him he was stronger than she knew he believed of himself, while she reached down with her free hand to caress his cheek. "You can fight the darkness. I can help you. We can do it together."_

_ "I'm not as strong as you are… or Merlin," Killian weakly pleaded with her once more and momentarily closed his eyes upon feeling ashamed again of the sins of his past, a pain that never disappeared even after he had grown into becoming a hero. "I'm weak. The things I've done… I've done. I've succumbed to darkness before in my life. And it took centuries to push it away. I don't know if I can do it again."_

_ Emma wasn't prepared to let him go, as she asked, "But our future…"_

_ He whispered painfully, "I'll just be happy knowing that… that you have one. Aah!"_

_ Upon feeling him slipping further away from her, especially when he suddenly cried out as his pain became too much for him and at last lost his battle with consciousness, the Savior's heart shattered. She tried to wake him once she quickly switched hands so she could caress his other cheek after his head lolled to his side, only to no avail._

_ "That's not enough for me!" Emma then desperately cried out as she began to sob while tears poured down her cheeks._

_ Not being able to bear losing the man she loved, especially not because he was dying upon helping to save her from the darkness still within her, the Dark One took over her in a dark and desperate act to save him, as Emma at last let go of him and reached out to grab hold of Excalibur, then summoned her powers and those of the magical blade in order to draw out the darkness from within Merlin so she could tether it to Killian instead. Despite his plea with her to let him go so he wouldn't become that which he most hated and feared. While doing so to him broke her heart, losing him completely would only break her heart that much more. Emma couldn't lose the man she loved again. Especially not if she had the power in her to save him._

_ Once she finished, after the darkness left Merlin's body and emanated from Excalibur into Killian, his body suddenly vanished within a burst of golden light, then Killian's name at last appeared upon the broken sword, like her own name adorned the blade of the Dark One's dagger. And at last, her own darkness burst out from within Excalibur as it swiftly transformed her appearance upon her fully giving into the darkness, just as Merlin had warned. She paid a steep price to try save him from death. Now only another would save them both from the darkness once and for all._

Back in Storybrooke, once Emma finished sharing with Killian the truth…

Emma finally turned around again to face him and looked into his eyes so she could get a sense of what he was feeling, while all he could do at first was stare at her in shock and with fear as though he was only looking at the Dark One within her despite Emma still clinging to the Savior she once was.

"No," he finally uttered out of disbelief, as he stumbled backwards in effort to back away from her a few steps. "No… no… no… no… You wouldn't do this to me. It can't… it can't be true."

"After all I've done to try to destroy the darkness…" he continued on as his fear and confusion slowly grew more into anger. "After everything the Crocodile has done to me and the villain I've allowed my hatred to turn me into because of it… How could you do this to me? And now… after all I've done to change and to become the hero… the man I truly wish to be… the hero you see me as? I've spent centuries trying to push away my own darkness that's been inside of me since I was a boy, after I was abandoned and sold into slavery by my own father, and you saved my life… only to condemn me to an eternal battle against the other kind of darkness that I've hated as much as myself all these years?"

At last, Emma pleaded with him to try to understand why she had done as she did, as she answered him with remorse, "Killian, please… You have to understand that I had no other choice. You were dying and I couldn't lose you. I told you once that I couldn't bear to lose you too. I love you. I don't really blame you for me having lost my own battle against the darkness in Camelot. It's my own fault and becoming this…"

She quickly waved her hand over her new appearance before she added, "…the Dark One you see before you now."

"I only said it was everyone's fault back at Granny's because to throw you all off so that I would have time alone to try to fix all that I've done without any of you ever finding out the awful truth about what I've done to you," the woman he loved continued sadly even after he turned away from her again as he looked out upon the waves before him, while he struggled to listen to everything she was telling him. "Without you… ever learning the truth. But I told you anyways because of your plea and because I believe you have it in you to forgive me for what I've done to you. And because I love you. I may be the Dark One, but I'm also still the same woman you fell in love with. I need you to understand and to trust in me to fix this. Trust in me truly save you, and me too."

"I'm not… I can't… I can't possibly live this way," her pirate said again at last while he struggled with his words, as Emma then saw her mistake in telling him the truth despite it being the right thing to do, upon seeing just how much the truth pained him, almost as badly as the physical agony he suffered when he was dying.

He faced her once more as he spoke again darkly saying, "Not like Gold could with the darkness inside of him. I'm nothing like that Crocodile! He relishes in the power that the darkness gives him. He continuously thirsts for more. I can't go back to being a villain again. I can't lose everything I have again, least of all because I am too weak."

It was then that Killian's hand shook when he nervously reached down to his belt and lifted one of his own daggers while he added, "And Emma… I am weak. I always have been. If what you've confessed to me really is true, then… this blade won't actually harm me and I'll know for certain that I am nothing more than another Dark One."

"No!" Emma then shouted fearfully, when Killian raised the blade out in front of him so he could plunge it deep into his abdomen and suddenly thrust it towards himself.

However, as Dark One, Emma was faster and so without hesitation, she swiftly grabbed tight hold of his wrist to stop him just in time, then waved her free hand over his face to render him unconscious once again like she had done to him back in Camelot just before the dark curse swept over them and brought them all home. But this time, she caught him before he fell against the deck, then carefully laid him down and lovingly began to hold his upper body within her arms as if to comfort him.

Tears silently slipped down her cheeks again like they did as he laid dying within the field of middlemist flowers, knowing just how much pain she forced upon him back in Camelot and now, in her desperate effort not only to save him, but also to ease his guilt he would again soon carry with him for failing to save her.

"So… it appears that confession isn't always good for the soul," the voice of the darkness within Emma's mind sounded in the form of Rumplestiltskin, when the demon appeared again on the ship's deck in front of her as he smiled down at her smugly. "At least not for yours, nor his. Especially not his."

Without lifting her head away from on top of his own where she rested hers while she continued to hold her love, she grumbled coldly, "Shut up."

He giggled and sneered when the villain replied, "Honestly, I'm surprised you thought that telling him the truth about what you've done to him would help ease his conscience any. I could have told you it wouldn't have. You're lucky this is the way it went. This situation could have gone a number of ways. Exactly what were you hoping to accomplish here?"

"I wanted to see how Hook would react," Emma sadly responded to him, as she then summoned one of her dream catchers and used it to erase all memory of her confession and their time spent together since they left Granny's a little over an hour earlier. "To see if he would be able to forgive me. Plus… I didn't want him to feel guilty for something that isn't his to feel guilty about. Killian didn't wrong me in Camelot. Only the Dark One inside of him did because I betrayed him. But the man I love is still inside of him too. I haven't lost him yet like I feared I had. And I'll be damned if I let you try to keep me from trying to save him."

"You're only fooling yourself if you think that all of this is going to end with you and your lovesick puppy dog having your happy ending like you both long for, dearie," the demon cruelly answered her, as Emma leaned in close to tenderly kiss the top of Killian's forehead and then his lips before she used her powers to return the Jolly Roger to the harbor where her Captain would find it secured come morning once he awoke.

Then, she finally magicked him and herself back down below deck within his quarters so she could lay him down upon his bed for the night so he will be able to sleep peacefully, at least for one night before tomorrow's chaos would begin. Rumplestiltskin followed behind her into the quarters as well.

Once Killian was laid out, Emma turned around to face her demon again and said to him darkly, "So long as Killian doesn't know and he can't remember he's a Dark One, you can't get inside his head. So leave him be and get the hell out of here. And leave me be. I don't need you any longer."

Rumplestiltskin smiled cruelly and then before he disappeared again like the Dark One before him demanded, he whispered, "We shall see."

And with that said, the demon vanished. After he was gone, Emma turned her head once more to look down upon the man she loved and when she was sure that he was safe for now while he continued to sleep and that he wouldn't remember anything from tonight, she finally vanished from his quarters so she could at last be alone.

The End


	2. Thank You

Thank you to all who have read and have written reviews for my story! I am so grateful for your kindness. I'm deeply honored and I hope to hear from you all again. There will be plenty more stories to come. Best of wishes to you all!

Sincerely,

Genevieve Kelly


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